A Handful of Blossoms

Written in form of a diary, which genre was so popular in the 18th century and which sounds so comprehensible in our time of blogging/webdiaries/webjournals, the novella may be called a love story. A story of a young bride and her weird marriage. Time: 1764, a year after the Seven Years War. Europe. Welcome to this vortex of time. More

A story of a young bride and her weird marriage. Time: 1764, a year after the Seven Years War. Place: one of German states, fictional."Lushly-descriptive story told in diary form of a sixteen-year-old orphaned princess of the 18th century European aristocracy who is married off to a man twice her age as was often the custom. Their dynastic alliance is a loveless marriage. Undaunted by her circumstances, she finds solace from bitter disappointment in the beauty of nature, in the little pleasures of daily life, and in her own inner strength and vivid imagination. Told in the eloquent style and manner of the great authors of past centuries, it is a rich tale to be savored one layer at a time. A wonderful work of literary fiction." (Jocelyn Murray, Goodreads.com)Nothing unworldly, but the mysterious and mighty undead, who appears in the winter tale of the novel Silver Thread Spinner, by Lara Biyuts, appears in this story as well. The image of the undead is neither Author’s attempt to follow the fashion nor Author’s contribution to the modern day literary taste; Author merely loves speculating on the subject. “Shared, secret, celebrated, exploded, subtle--as an unrequited longing or mellowing through the years--at long distance, across continents or so close, it is never quite close enough--from the inside out and from the outside in, the likely and the unlikely--hot, unfair, jealous, crazy Love is coming. Get ready—now, it comes to You!” (Lara Biyuts)

Lara Biyuts (aka Lara Biuts, Larisa Biyuts) author of 14 books of fiction, writer of the RevueBlanche.blogspot, collage maker for her bookcovers, translator, who signs her translations as Larisa Biyuts. Her novella A Handful of Blossoms is 2012 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention. Her works are accepted for anthologies: Cat’s Cradle Time Yarns (Time Yarns Anthologies), Authors off the Shelf (Lazy Beagle Entertainment), Of Words and Water 2014 (Words and Water group supporting WaterAid), Hope Springs a Turtle, The Black Rose of Winter, and Greek Fire (Lost Tower Publications). Her old tale and poems are featured on TheHolidayCafe.com (2013). Her poetry is on the monthly eJournal The Criterion (April, 2014). She is a Goodreads librarian. Her novel La Lune Blanche is the first of the series. "The novel is the world where pleasures of life and pleasures of art are just norms." (Turner Maxwell Books)“The author produces a setting which is detailed and believable, and also characters which the reader gets to know well. Also the plot moves along nicely through-out the story.” (April O., facebook.com)“Lara Biyuts’ writing is deep and multi layered.” (Maggie Mack Books, maggiemackbooks.com) “Lara Biyuts comes to us from the great tradition of Nabokov and Conrad, enriching our literature in English with the rich cosmopolitain perspecitve of the East European tradition leading back to Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Like those great masters she takes us also into the shadow world of sexuality with its hidden psychology, possession and sensual revelations.” (Robert Sheppard, Author of the novel Spiritus Mundi, linkedin.com)“The secret of Lara Biyuts is her tales. The secret of her tales is their charm. The secret of the charm is Lara Biyuts.” (Les Hudson, goodreads.com)Favorite quotes: “Follow me, reader! Who told you that there is no true, faithful, eternal love in this world! May the liar's vile tongue be cut out! Follow me, my reader, and me alone, and I will show you such a love!” (Mikhail Bulgakov) “Cowardice is the most terrible of vices.” (Mikhail Bulgakov)